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The Undead
The undead, or zombies, are the reanimated bodies of dead humans. They serve as the overall primary antagonists of The Walking Dead franchise, including the fan fictions spun off from it. Overview The undead are the bodies of humans that have died and been reanimated by an as of yet named phenomenon, leaving them with sufficient brain and vital functions to move about and eat, but not enough to be considered truly alive or capable of intelligent thought. Called by many names by the various survivors in the series, the undead, in small numbers are relatively slow and weak, even despite their relative immortality. They become dangerous in large numbers and are assumed to greatly outnumber the number of humans that survived the initial outbreak. Despite being, for all intents and purposes, corpses, the reanimated undead seem to undergo a much slower decomposition rate than a normal corpse, as even several years after the outbreak takes place, their number seemingly haven't decreased in the slightest. Infection Process Early on in the series, it is established that everyone on the planet is infected with an unknown type of pathogen that causes their reanimation once dead. There is no known cure for this infection and no known cases of immunity, except in animals, which are immune to the pathogen altogether. Symptoms of the infection do not begin to show themselves until one is bitten or scratched by a member of the undead. Once a bite or scratch is made, the following symptoms prelude death; # Fever and cold sweats. # Extreme nausea and vomiting. # Soreness. # Delirium. # Pale skin. # Dilated pupils. # Fainting. # Dehydration. # Coughing/vomiting blood. The victim eventually dies due to these symptoms and then moves into the reanimation phase of the pathogen. It should be noted that should one amputate the portion of the body in which the initial bite or scratch took place, they may be able to prevent the symptoms from taking place, therefore halting the infection. The amputation must be done almost immediately after penetration, however, or the infection will spread and the symptoms will become unstoppable. Reanimation Process According to in the television show, the reanimation of the dead occurs due to an unknown pathogen that invades the brain after the death of the victim—in a manner similar to —and restarts their brain stem. The cause of this pathogen, at the moment, is entirely unknown. The entire reanimation process has been recorded to take place anywhere from three minutes after death, up to eight hours afterwards, though some reanimations have been observed as being much quicker. It has been suggested that the amount of time it takes to reanimate is dependent on how lively a person was prior to their demise. Because only a small portion of the brain is restarted—only enough to support the vital systems—the undead retain no resemblance to the person they once were, aside from the obvious physical resemblance. Tendencies The undead in the series are characterized by their ravenous hunger for the living. This hunger extends to both humans and animals. This hunger comes despite the fact that they do not need to eat in order to continue their reanimated state nor to sustain themselves. Somehow, the undead are able to differentiate between the living and the dead, as they have been shown to completely ignore anything that has their scent of decay on them; suggesting that they have the ability to differentiate scents. When not in the presence of an available food source, the undead simply lurk around one centralized location. However, sound will immediately activate their hunting senses and cause them to mindlessly flock towards the source of the noise. When they become aware of an active food source, the undead become restless and lively, mercilessly pursuing the object of their hunger. As they never run out of stamina, the undead can continue to pursue their prey until they can no longer see, hear, or smell them. speculates that the undead do undergo starvation, but, like their decomposition rate, their rate of starvation is significantly lowered compared to a normal human. They seem to possess some level of instinct, despite not having a normal cognitive thought process. Some of the undead have been shown to purposely lie dormant until the living approach them, attacking them at this time; suggesting that they have some sort of predatory instinct. Countermeasures Killing the Undead Domestication Nicknames Trivia